Welcome everyone to the new edition of the Counter that Pokemon project! Last time it was a great success, spawning some interesting discussion and inspiring new ideas. The metagame has changed quite a bit, since Genesect is with us no more, but we do have new and dangerous threats to counter, namely Garchomp and Kyurem-Black! That said, I'm going to keep this boring introduction short and explain a little better what the CtP project is.

Q: What are we going to do?A: The idea is to build two teams that, while not necessarily very good in general, are designed to counter each other to the best of their abilities. We will choose the pokes that will compose the two teams in an alternated fashion: if "1" represents a pick for the Team 1, and "2" a pick for the Team 2, the picks will look like this: 1 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 1, so except from the first and the last choice, each team will select two pokes consecutively, attempting to neuter the portion of the other team already known, pose new threats for the opponents, and avoid creating excessive weaknesses that could be easily exploited later. The project will end with a battle between the two teams, to "determine" which team countered "better" the opponent.

Q: How does the picking process work?A: There are two phases when picking a pokemon for any of the two teams: a discussion phase and a voting phase. In the first phase you propose new sets, give feedback on others' proposals, and generally discuss what direction we should follow for the team that's picking currently. The second phase is a single bold voting, where everyone can express his or her preference for the set he or she thinks is best suited for the team. The discussion phase will last roughly 48-72 hours for each pokemon we to pick to allow everyone to propose a set and comment on the already listed ones; the voting will be faster, with a duration of 24-48 hours (I'll adjust the durations according to participation / relevance of discussion / other factors).

Rules:

One set per person. A valid set should include all of the following elements: sprite / image, name of the pokemon, item, ability, nature, EVs, IVs (you can omit this in case they're obvious), moveset, and a description about why your suggestion fits the current team (please avoid one-line submissions). Lack of any of those elements can result in your set not being listed for voting.

No slashes in movesets. The only exceptions are: Blizzard / Ice Beam, Thunder / Thunderbolt, Hurricane / Air Slash, SolarBeam / Leaf Storm or Energy Ball. If the team selects the appropriate weather inducer, the weather dependant move will be chosen, and the other one if the team choose to go weatherless.

Do not complain about the sets listed for voting. If your set wasn't listed for some reasons, contact me in private; I'll happily give advice on how to make a better suggestion, or will edit the voting slate if it was just a mistake.

When voting, make sure to bold your vote and nothing else in your post.

Voting for your own set is allowed, for now. However please keep in mind that there's nothing to win here, so if I see everyone just voting consistently for himself or herself, I'll modify this rule and disallow self voting.

If there is a tie in a vote, one or both of the topic leaders (me or NixHex, depending on availability) will cast their vote to break them.

My submission stops cold all the pokes of the opposing team! It's perfect!
Maybe. Or maybe it's just overspecialized for the current lineup of the enemy team, and opens much worse scenarios in case the enemy exploits your careless picking. We've seen quite a bit of those proposals in the past, including Signal Beam Cresselia just to counter a Meloetta (no offense intended, but that was just a terrible submission). Those kind of entries are just bad, so please make sure to think a bit more before postng if your idea resembles that. CrackinSkulls gave us awesome guidelines in this perspective, so I'm quoting his post here:

fat CrackinSkulls said:

It is a teambuilding game where pokemon are suggested for there respective team. At the end of the day these two teams will battle each other. We want to win this battle. So how do we ensure that... we make each set on our team counter our opponents and be as uncounterable as possible so our opponents are hard pressed to counter it with there next addition. Essentially we want to beat our opponent by countering them and preventing them from countering us. I feel that currently people are not understanding this. In the above Dusclops example, do we actually want to build a team around Dusclops!? This gives the opponent hundreds of options to choose from, Tyranitar which is a HUGE advantage because of sand, hell even a Bisharp becomes possible and very tough to counter. In short when you guys start a team do you honestly go "hmm lets make a team around chansey".

You guys are all intelligent people, use your intelligence, wit and cunning to accomplish this task by trapping your opponent just as you would in a match and using your match honed prediction to ensnare your opponent in a sticky web of cunning. Predict their choices and act upon them, play mind games, this game is supposed to bring out the best of our battle honed minds. If we are resorting to using Dusclops and Cresselia our opponent has us on the back foot in the first round from where they can dominate, bully and force into submission. So cunning OU players out there use your match skills to outpredict, outplay and beat the opponent. To quote Poppy in the Ubers thread " Pick discreetly, with the intention to bait, befoul, bludgeon, barf upon, and generally bring waste to the opposition."

If you guys are struggling to understand the concept have a look at the ubers thread or the previous OU one . Anyway i hope i could help you guys understand the game and keep this thread a little cleaner. Don't post nonsense posts keep them simple, clean and easy to follow. Good luck with the game.

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So the discussion phase is only about posting sets?
Please let me put emphasis on this: NO!!! The most important part of the discussion phase is, well, discussion and feedback on others' sets. The old thread was fullofawesomeposts, people discussed, changed their sets according to feedback, and it was just a nice, friendly and inspiring environment. This is what we aim to have, and hopefully with your help we'll obtain something great like that.

You talked about teams a million of times till now. Do we need to split ourselves in two teams?
Nope. You're free to contribute to the discussion while picking pokes for Team 1, 2, or both, as you please. I encourage contributing actively for both teams, since it makes the project funnier and avoid the risks of a team running out of proposals / submissions / discussion.

IMPORTANT! Team 1 has a HUGE advantage! Picking last is gamebreaking!
This concern is perfectly justified. In fact, the last CtP was heavily affected from this "asymmetry": Team 2 built a very good offensive team, but failed to see his own weakness to hazards and inability to break through sturdy defensive walls. This resulted into Team 1 picking Deoxys-D as last member, and a quite easy victory in the final battle. This should be an example for us: we need to avoid being weak to a particular strategy when building teams (Team 2 in particular, since it's most exposed to surprise counter-picks). While this thing may be seen as a flaw in the CtP process, I'm persuaded that, while it gives an advantage to Team 1, it can be handled quite well being aware of that, and the fact that Team 2 is harder to build should be an incentive to more experienced or inspired battlers / builders to participate.

Yeah, Swords Dance Lucario. This thing is a monster once it sets up, 2HKOing even Skarmory with Close Combat. It only needs to set up once before it can mop up pretty much any team in OU. Close Combat is obligatory (and powerful) STAB, Crunch gives it great coverage, and Extremespeed provides an extra priority move because fuck Mach Punch. I chose Crunch over Ice Punch/Bullet Punch because Ice Punch leaves it open to Jellicent and bulky Psychic-types, who are arguably harder to kill than Gliscor, Dragonite or Gengar.

A classic from DPP. With the kind-of-sort-of-nobody-has-really-noticed-me recent release of Petaya Berry in BW2 this set has become possible again. The point of the set is to abuse that awesome typing to set up an Agility (or two if your OP doesn't know what he is doing) to outspeed +1 Gyarados and then spam 2-3 Substitutes to activate Petaya Berry and Torrent to get a double +1 for your STAB attack. Once their speedy ScarfMon is gone (and Sub prevents them from switching in directly) this thing can clean up even slightly weakened Stall teams.

Throwing a bit of a curve ball here! Credit where credit is due. Anyway, this set is extremely underrated and gives Hydreigon an additional role as a teamplayer rather than purely as a sweeper or wallbreaker. It would be interesting to see this set in the spotlight, and it adds an extra dynamic to counter-that-team element. How do you "counter" something that can both hit very hard and give its team a brief momentum boost with no drawbacks? Only time will tell. I think this set is sure to spice things up a bit, and also promote interesting discussion on potential strategical uses of Tailwind (without necessarily basing a team around it, I must add).

Basically, set up on something you can force out, and go to town with +2 Speed and gargantuan 145 base SpA. This set, in my opinion, is better than the nasty plot set, due to the fact that its speed is not quite high enough to sweep. Agility fixes this problem. Thunderbolt is its main STAB move, which will hit very hard. Its good coverage with Grass Knot and HP Ice creates a terrifying sweeper!

Basically, set up on something you can force out, and go to town with +2 Speed and gargantuan 145 base SpA. This set, in my opinion, is better than the nasty plot set, due to the fact that its speed is not quite high enough to sweep. Agility fixes this problem. Thunderbolt is its main STAB move, which will hit very hard. Its good coverage with Grass Knot and HP Ice creates a terrifying sweeper!

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IMHO, go with Focus Blast over Grass Knot. Without it, you're walled easily by Ferrothorn, and you also deal more damage to Tyranitar with Focus Blast. Thunderbolt does much more damage to Rotom-W than Grass Knot as Rotom-W does not weigh very much. The only things Grass Knot is really hitting are Gastrodon, Quagsire and Lanturn, but it's not like any of those are common anyway.

Zoro@LO/Scarf
Naive
32 Atk/224 SpA/252 Spe
(Now the evs can be swapped however but the attack should stay just because of the fact that sucker punch is an ohko on standard latias.)
-Night daze/Dark pulse
-Flamethrower
-Sucker Punch
-U-Turn
Anyway, with no real "counters" until the illusion is up (sans priority), zoroark could allow some serious mind games. For example, one sends in a pokemon. Let's say the opponent sees a sizzor with them having one of the latis out. They wouldn't know what was what. This could allow some interesting mind games. If they swap and it's a Scizzor, they could get smacked by a hard pursuit. But if they stay in, a hard BP but a ko with hp fire. However, if it's Zorro, the threat of stab pursuit along with an ohko with sucker punch is eminent. This is just One scenario where Zorro can mess with the enemy.

One of OU's most powerful mons, SubSD Rock Gem Terrakion. Few things can switch into this beast and not get demolished. Sub eases prediction and prevents Terrakion from being easily revenged by Mach punch or Bullet Punch. Close Combat + Ston Edge give fantastic coverage together. Swords Dance and Rock Gem allow Terrakion to smash its counters such. The oh-so-bulky Slowbro, for example has a 75% chance to be OHKOed after SR at +2. This 'mon is a great first pick - it's fast, powerful and has few counters; factors that immediately force team 2 to pick more defensively.

Nominating one of the top dogs of the metagame right now, techniloom. This is kind of a underrated, but in my opinion the best breloom set. With a fighting gem equipped, Breloom is a bitch to counter. Fighting gem allows breloom to bust through a usual check, such as latios, and than open the door for a easy sweep. I think this would be a great first pick because its not easy to counter, and even harder so with a fight gem.

This version of Starmie can survive a CB Ttar Pursuit, has a good chance to 0HKO versions with low HP/SpD (when they invest in Speed for Jellicent for instance) and 2HKO anyway. This means, that it leaves a free room to a sweeper because CB Pursuiters are easy set-up fodders. It's almost a pokemon you don't want to counter.

There isn't much an enemy can do against this pokemon, anyway you can still spin. Countering this pokemon would mean having a Pursuiter (and there is no Pursuiter that can really kill a Starmie easily), or a Spin Blocker. Anyway, if Starmie can't spin, the star can still be a huge threat to almost anything with the coverage and the decent SpA.

Nominating one of the top dogs of the metagame right now, techniloom. This is kind of a underrated, but in my opinion the best breloom set. With a fighting gem equipped, Breloom is a bitch to counter. Fighting gem allows breloom to bust through a usual check, such as latios, and than open the door for a easy sweep. I think this would be a great first pick because its not easy to counter, and even harder so with a fight gem.

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How about we change it to the bold? With the life orb equipped, Breloom becomes a potent late-game sweeper. The extra power is useful for taking apart teams as Breloom typically only grabs 1 SD boost without a bunch of set-up.

The main change is that this Breloom turns from a mid-game sweeper that punches holes in teams to a late-game sweeper that obliterates teams once its counters are out of the game.

This Breloom hates defensive pokemon that it can't spore. This means two things:
1) The opposing team should only have 1 defensive poke left when Breloom tries to sweep as Breloom can only spore one poke (the defensive one).

2) Breloom hates defensive pokes faster than it. Jirachi and Gliscor are huge pains in the ass as they're both faster. Gliscor is also immunte to status.

Nominating one of the top dogs of the metagame right now, techniloom. This is kind of a underrated, but in my opinion the best breloom set. With a fighting gem equipped, Breloom is a bitch to counter. Fighting gem allows breloom to bust through a usual check, such as latios, and than open the door for a easy sweep. I think this would be a great first pick because its not easy to counter, and even harder so with a fight gem.

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Techloom is certainly threatening but I wouldn't say it breaks through latios. The given scenario is pretty assumed: sd after the spore or just on the predicted switch as Latios comes in. Adamant Techloom only deals 65-75% with +2 Fight Gem boosted Mach Punch against standard Latios. I would think life orb would be the better item for the consistant damage.

We all know what this guy does. Stab + Life Orb + Sheer Force gives it more than double stab on Earth Power. It OHKOs most of the meta game even without rocks and anything it can't kill dies with multiple SR switch ins. It's "slow" by current metagame standards but it's important to keep the speed at a maximum to outpace +Spe natured base 100s like non-boosted/scarfed Mence (who obviously easily dies to HP Ice). It requires some support like rocks and spikes though rocks are much more important because anything that can dodge spikes damage is what you can't hit as well. Example: Gengar, Tornadus-T, Lati@s and Thunderous-T all dodge/resists the EP/FB combo and Landorus fails to OHKO any with HP Ice (though he will OHKO Tornadus-T and Thunderous-T about 88% of the time after rocks. Gengar and Lati@s only take 45-60% so after rocks they'll be immensely crippled).

As a late game sweeper he's fantastic. The 4x ice weakness isn't nice but teammates can check things like Mamoswine who wreck the party. The dual immunities to Ground/Electric give him plenty of opportunities to come in and set up a Rock Polish. After a rock polish (with rocks up) it's more or less GG if the opponent doesn't have a strong priority user as he will proceed to OHKO plenty of teams. He runs train over DragMag (bar Mamo who needs to be accounted for), Sun and most Sand teams and the only thing stopping him really is strong priority. Modest nature is also possible as it allows Landorus to hit harder once it has it's RP boost but there aren't many things (bar it's checks) that this lets it deal with better and outpacing base 100s is generally more important.

Premptive theorymoning since Mamo ruins the party and is an obvious opposing choice if Landorus is chosen: anything that can take an ice shard and outspeed would be a good partner to this guy. Also a good trapper like TTar or Scizor (though Scizor to a lesser extent since Lati@s tend to carry HP Fire) would be nice to kill off it's main checks (Lati@s give the most grief but he also can't hit Levitating Ghost types like Gengar very well). Scizor seems to be a good partner because it beats Mamo (BP > Ice Shard), can Trap (though somewhat poorly as mentioned) and can soften up the opposing team with U-Turn if banded were chosen.

Incredibly underrated yet incredibly effective.This is a standard SubDD Dragonite.This set is rarely seen but if you ask anyone whoever used it,I assure you you'll get nothing but a shower of praise and admiration for this guy.

Now for some serious description,the goal of this set is to abuse multiscale with Sub and Roost setting up multiple Dragon Dance's in the process.Thanks to it's bulk,multiscale,sub and roost,it can set up on a huge array of pokemons.Then it's just a matter of time before the opposing team gets swept by Dragon Claw.A sweep is almost guaranteed with little support.

The checks for this set are few and far between.And the set itself acts as a reliable Late Game Cleaner creating the oppurtunity to get rid of whatever pokemon Team 2 might choose in response of SubDDNite before this guy comes into action.These 2 charactaristics makes it a very good choice for Team 1's first pokemon in my opinion.

Imagine SubRoost DDNite, but one that cannot be phazed out ;0 Meet SubRoost HC Kyu-B!

This set can carry teams. I have singlehandedly shuffle-swept a team (without hazards!) with this White Frost Dragon. It certainly pulls its weight, thanks to its immense bulk that allows it to survive Modest Landorus's Focus Blast and Specs Keldeo's Secret Sword! It's Substitute wont even break from Heatran's Lava Plume :D. There are simply way too many set-up opportunities for Kyurem-B - it will certainly pull some major feats in any game ;)

Are you suggesting Landorus be a late-game sweeper, or one of the first pokes sent out?

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Sorry about that. I was just meaning that as a first teammate (since we're just in the first round now) he's a good place to start. He's definitely a solid late game sweeper and ill advised as a lead poke. I've edited my earlier post to reflect this.

Incredibly underrated yet incredibly effective.This is a standard SubDD Dragonite.This set is rarely seen but if you ask anyone whoever used it,I assure you you'll get nothing but a shower of praise and admiration for this guy.

Now for some serious description,the goal of this set is to abuse multiscale with Sub and Roost setting up multiple Dragon Dance's in the process.Thanks to it's bulk,multiscale,sub and roost,it can set up on a huge array of pokemons.Then it's just a matter of time before the opposing team gets swept by Dragon Claw.A sweep is almost guaranteed with little support.

The checks for this set are few and far between.And the set itself acts as a reliable Late Game Cleaner creating the oppurtunity to get rid of whatever pokemon Team 2 might choose in response of SubDDNite before this guy comes into action.These 2 charactaristics makes it a very good choice for Team 1's first pokemon in my opinion.

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A fun set I've not used but heard good things about. The main thing stopping it is phazing and not allowing it to set up. Since this is designed as a "show all" and "counter that poke" kind of deal the surprise factor is ruined for this set though. I would wager that most people assume offensive/bulky DD or banded based on the team. This is one of the last sets I'd thing of if seeing it in a match (and hence part of why it works, the surprise). This is thrown out the window though in this scenario because all the other team has to do it not let it set up, phaze it out or even just run a bulky steel and out favorite dragon can't really do anything.

Not trying to shoot down diversity as I do like the set but there are a lot of things that stop this poke and they've got a whole team to work with still. That and the fact that Pocket's Kyurem-B set seems like a better choice as far as the "bulky set up dragon" position goes. I know from personal experience that it's a massive pain to get around...

This jirachi set is a nice wall breaker. With fire punch it can catch fire types that normally switch into it, mainly Forretress and Ferrothorn, Hidden power ice murder Landorus-t, Gliscor, and dragonite, while thunderbolt lets you 2ko some bulky waters and skarmory. Iron head is the main stab that helps you flinching to death things. The spread is to outspeed landorus-t, and to make sure that gliscor is dead after an hidden power ice.

Moderator

We all know what Scizor does. Boost while you can, then Bullet Punch things to death unless your opponent resists. In that case use Bug Bite. Heatran and Magnezone are quite predictable, so you can nail them with Superpower on the switch. Gothitelle cowers in fear at even +0 Bug Bite, so it can't switch in either (and can't really do much to Scizor while it's in unless it's running Timid or Scarf with Hidden Power Fire). The real kicker here is Scizor's priority, which discourages your opponent from wasting its time boosting. Unfortunately in this challenge, your opponent knows your set, so bluffing is impossible.

Neiliel Tu Oderschvank's Jirachi: Expert Belt is better, imo. It gives you a lot more power in its moves, allowing it to OHKO Scizor with Fire Punch after SR, etc. You can also afford to run more Speed, too. 148 Atk / 204 SpA / 156 Spe; Naive Nature is the spread I suggest.

NixHex's LO SD Scizor: This set wrecks. I highly suggest Jolly Nature, though. Being faster than Tentacruel, Specs Toed, Adamant Breloom, Max Spe Magnezone, and Wish Rachi are significant threats that you miss out with Adamant.

Well yeah you are right, take in mind that i used that set under hail (well probably it wasnt even my team) so i didnt like the recoil. Leftovers is quite good anyway to get a sort of recover thanks to iron head, and without leftovers i think that people assume that i am scarfed so they can maybe expect a fire punch or an ice punch, so i dont know if its better or not..

Well, it's not a sure thing that the team we're going to build would have Abomasnow. I had no problems nailing Gliscor / Hippo with HP Ice or Scizor with Fire Punch even if they assumed I am Scarfed. This is because, Scizor would switch into Iron Head, expecting Jirachi to be locked into it, only to be taken out the following turn with Fire Punch.

Well, it's not a sure thing that the team we're going to build would have Abomasnow. I had no problems nailing Gliscor / Hippo with HP Ice or Scizor with Fire Punch even if they assumed I am Scarfed. This is because, Scizor would switch into Iron Head, expecting Jirachi to be locked into it, only to be taken out the following turn with Fire Punch.

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Keep in mind that each team knows exactly what the other one is packing, so pulling off a "bait-and-switch" move like that is highly improbable.